Measuring rotary motions, and, in particular, the speed and the rotational behavior of individual wheels on a vehicle is of great importance in connection with automotive vehicle control systems such as systems for anti-lock control brake systems, traction slip control, and suspension control, etc. Sensors for these types of applications must be durable, reliable, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble, easy to diagnose, replace, and maintain.
Semiconductor devices, including rotary motion sensing devices, typically are mass produced and automatically assembled. Thus, positioning the device, protecting the device, and being able to test the device during the assembly process are important considerations to the manufacturing of such devices.
One known method of positioning semiconductor devices during the assembly process consists of using carriers, which are separate from the semiconductor devices and which cradle the semiconductor devices during assembly. One of the problems associated with this method is that the carriers tend to be relatively large compared to the semiconductor devices being processed, requiring more space during the assembly process and making the use of carriers somewhat awkward. Another problem associated with this method is that carriers, by themselves, provide limited protection to the semiconductor devices during the assembly process.